Swamp Thing Series to have Hard-R tone, practical suit

In an interview with /Film, IT writer Gary Dauberman has confirmed that DC Universe‘s upcoming live-action Swamp Thing is expected to be a hard-R rated style series thanks to the creative freedom on the DC Universe platform.

“We always set out to make Swamp Thing as hard R as we could and go graphic with the violence, with the adult themes and make it as scary as possible,”Dauberman said. “Because we’re doing it through the DC streaming service, they really pushed us, although they didn’t have to push hard, for us to go as extreme as we could. We really took our inspiration from the Alan Moore run in Swamp Thing, this landmark I think run. Fans of that series will know it gets pretty weird and extreme and scary. We really wanted to live up to that standard that Moore set up back in the ‘80s. Then of course it allows us, Swamp Thing himself looks incredible what Justin Raleigh and the guys over at Fractured are doing with the suit. So it’s going to look amazing and less of the “man in suit” that you’ve seen in the movie and the other TV show.”

The live-action DC Universe adaptation of the classic antihero originally created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson will be executive produced by Len Wiseman (Sleepy Hollow) who will also direct the pilot. Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Netflix’s Daredevil) and Gary Dauberman (It) are attached to co-write the series and act as showrunners, with James Wan (Aquaman) set to executive-produce the series alongside Verheiden, Dauberman, and Michael Clear.

Swamp Thing made his comic book debut back in 1971 and has maintained his position as a staple of the DCU since then, including seminal runs written by Alan Moore, Brian K. Vaughan, Mark Millar, and Scott Snyder. The character was previously adapted into a feature film from Wes Craven in 1982, which spawned a sequel seven years later, and a USA Network series that ran for three seasons in the early ’90s. Dick Durock took on the role in both the films and the series. An animated Swamp Thing series also debuted in the early ’90s but only aired five episodes.

Should Swamp Thing be picked up to series, it would join Titans in the live-action sector of DC Universe and other original series (albeit animated) Young Justice: Outsiders and Harley Quinn.

Swamp Thing comes from James Wan’s Atomic Monster in association with Warner Bros. Television. The pilot is set to premiere in 2019 on the DC Universe digital subscription service.